Olivia Hard at Work
Source: Guitar Basics
After the Newness Wears Off…
In all of my years of practice the more things change, the more things stay the same. When the newness of the guitar starts to wear off and the drudgery of daily practicing sets in, it’s time to come up with creative methods to keep our kids practicing.
How Much Practice is Enough?
Let me restate that. What is the bare minimum practice time to progress sufficiently and still keep that interest/I’m bored attitude in check.
First off, if you have a kid that REALLY wants to practice and you never have to tell them, beg them or bribe them, count your lucky stars. You are one of the very fortunate few. Kids have very short attention spans.
Now throw in every distraction known to mankind, like TV, Game station, Xbox, Wii, Computers, the Internet and on and on. Lessons? Who wants to spend time on lessons.
Start With 20 Minutes
Here is what I have come up with over the years and what we are teaching our daughter to do.
When she gets home the first thing she does is her homework – period. That is the most important or Number One on the list. Next comes guitar practice.
We make it mandatory of a minimum of 20 minutes of practice a day. It’s also possible to split this into (2) 10 minutes sessions.
OK that isn’t much. But the trick here is to get them to do some songs they like, learn them and then ask for more. Say we learn one song a week. in a month the kids will have nailed 4 songs – commit to memory? Maybe and maybe not. It depends on the child.
Work Up to 30 Minutes:
After a few months the 20 minutes should extend to 30 minutes with (2) 15 minute sessions. If your child is learning a new song try to have them play the new song over at least 10 times. Then go back to the previously learned songs are practice those 3 to 4 time through each so they aren’t forgotten.
Resort to Bribery:
OK I did that today. I sat with my daughter and told her to I wanted her to play through Mary Had a Little Lamb 10 times. After about 4 times she started to wander, be inattentive and the practice was not a quality practice time. Candy to the rescue!! Have some sort of treat, you know whatever your kids like to snack on.
I happened to have Cheese-Its and Olivia LOVES Cheese-Its. After each time through I threw her a treat, just like our puppy dog. Wow – she not only zoomed through the lesson 10 times, she went right on to the older songs.
So that is one way that I handled a tough practice session – maybe you could do something like that too…..
Additional Practice Tips:
I would love to hear some tips that work for you and your children. Be sure to post your ideas here.
Tags: how to play guitar, how to practice guitar, Kids Guitar Lessons, proper music practice
